Help Us Help You

For routine eye exams, there are many things that you, as a patient, can do to ensure that you get the highest quality of care we can give you. This could also save you time and money in our office. In this blog, we’ll share a few suggestions to help you help us make the most of your next eye exam.

Take care of your paperwork before your visit. If you are a new patient, click here to download your patient forms. If you print the forms, fill them out prior to your exam and bring them with you, you will save yourself, and us, valuable time that we’d rather you receive in the exam chair with Dr. Mandel.

Have your ID handy. Bring your driver’s license or other valid photo ID, insurance card(s) and a form of payment with you on the day of your visit.

Know your insurance coverage. If you require a referral, it is your responsibility to obtain one and have it in hand when you come in for your appointment. If you don’t, and it’s required by your insurance company, the cost of the exam will be your responsibility. We don’t want this to happen, so please check the details of your insurance coverage before your visit.

The devil is in the details. If you are coming in for a specific problem, the more we know, the better! Therefore, it pays to keep track of your symptoms. This includes the date of the first episode, the duration of the episode and how frequently you experience these symptoms.

Systemic medications can affect your eyes and your eyesight. Be sure to bring a list of your medications. This is especially important if you’ve started a new medication and you’ve noticed a decrease in your vision.

Systemic disease can affect your eyes. Some diseases can cause inflammation within the eye, some can cause dry eye and some can actually cause blurry vision. Knowing your medical history helps us systematically rule out causes of these symptoms so that we can hone in on what’s really causing them. This will help us tailor a treatment regimen for you.

Diabetes, in particular, can affect your eyesight. The best indicator as to whether or not your diabetes is under control is no longer your blood sugar, it’s your HA1c. We need to know this number each time you come in for a vision check, so please keep a record of this value as well as the date it was obtained. If your HA1c or blood sugar is not under control, this can affect your vision and change your prescription. The change in your prescription is typically temporary, so we hesitate to give a new prescription to a diabetic patient without knowing whether or not their diabetes is under control.

Hate your last prescription? Bring it with you! Even if you don’t wear this pair of glasses because they give you a headache, or make your vision blurry, you should still bring them with you. It’s always helpful to know what has NOT worked for you in the past. This helps us determine what prescription you will be happiest with. It’s not as simple as just objectively measuring your prescription, although that is a part of the process. Even the subjective exam, better known by patients as the “better one, or two” test, doesn’t tell us exactly what you’ll tolerate in your everyday world. Anyone who has been to Mandel Vision for a routine eye exam has likely heard Dr. Mandel say: “There’s a difference between comfort and clarity.” We want to ensure you get a prescription you’ll both see well and be comfortable with.

Do you have a complicated eye history? Bring in your old records so that we can see what your specific diagnosis is. This will help us customize your exam more quickly and make your experience a lot more efficient.

Are you coming in to renew your contact lens prescription? Come in wearing your contact lenses AND bring in your boxes (especially if you are seeing an eye doctor for the first time.) It doesn’t do Dr. Mandel any good to evaluate the fit of a contact lens if he doesn’t know what type of lens he is evaluating. Without the information from your contact lens boxes, in order to accommodate you for that visit, Dr. Mandel would have to fit you for a new lens, one in which the parameters are known. This will not only take longer in the office, but will be considerably more expensive. Also, bring your glasses with you, even if you’re happy with your prescription. It’s helpful to have a record of your glasses prescription for history purposes. Also, if you ever lose or break your glasses, having a record of your prescription in your chart could save you an unnecessary trip back to our office, as well as the cost of another office visit.

Are you over 50 years old and noticing that you’re only having trouble seeing your computer screen? Measure the distance between you and your computer. The stronger the prescription, the closer you need to hold your reading material in order to see it clearly. Since everyone’s work and home environments are different, we like to know this distance so we can give you the prescription that best fits your particular working distance.

Here at Mandel Vision, we take pride in our work and strive to give you the highest quality of care possible. With your help, your experience will be not only pleasant and hassle-free, but efficient. In our crazy world, where we never seem to have enough time in the day for all we want to accomplish, we know how important efficiency is to our patients.